


The Paths That Stray

by doubletrouble



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, M/M, dumb boys r dumb
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-20
Updated: 2017-02-21
Packaged: 2018-09-25 17:02:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9831719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doubletrouble/pseuds/doubletrouble
Summary: Sirius is failing physics, James Potter has a guilt complex and Remus just wants to live his life in peace.





	1. Budget Cuts

**Author's Note:**

> EDIT: Hi! I edited this first chapter and I like this version a lot better now! If you read the previous chapter one, I suggest rereading it before I post other chapters! // So this is sort of my first time writing for wolfstar so if u see any glaring wrongness in it, please let me know! Remus is meant to be sort of a shit in this so he's kinda snarky.
> 
> Thank u for reading, comments/kudos are appreciated!! Also, i'm looking for a beta(s?) for this story so if ur interested hmu in the comments!

“So let me get this straight. You’re failing physics because you were out so much for football—”

 

“Which wasn’t my fault! I’m the co-captain!” Sirius interjected but Remus plowed on. _Sports or no, it’s your responsibility to catch up on your schoolwork, Black—_ Remus thought briefly.

 

“—and now you need a tutor because you don’t understand anything and for whatever reason, that means you come to me hoping I’ll do it?”  

 

Sirius nodded eagerly and Remus was unimpressed. Honestly, if Sirius couldn’t balance schoolwork and sports, then that wasn’t Remus’ problem to deal with. He had enough of his own. Still, Remus pretended to consider it for a moment.

 

“No.” Remus said flatly and turned to walk away briskly down the hall. Sirius spluttered unattractively for a few seconds before bolting after him.

 

“Hey—wait! Lupin, wait! Listen, I can pay you!” Sirius shouted and Remus only walked faster, this was getting much too embarrassing for Remus’ liking.

 

“I don’t want your money, Black.” Remus called over his shoulder.

 

“What about—” He started but Remus cut him off.

 

“Or your body!” No, _definitely_ not, Remus thought to himself. Students had begun to stare and Sirius huffed as he caught up with him.

 

“I wasn’t gonna say that.” Sirius said dejectedly, mouth set in a deep frown. Remus made a noise of acknowledgement without looking at Sirius and continued on. As Sirius struggled for words next to him, Remus caught sight of a friend, Alice, despondently pulling down a poster for what looked like poetry slam. As he neared her, he realized her eyes were slightly red with tears and he almost backpedaled; he really wasn’t the best with comforting people. She noticed him approaching though, and began to stomp towards him. _So much for getting out while you could, Remus_ —he thought to himself.

 

“Remus, I’m so glad you’re here, you won’t believe what they’ve done!” She shouted, still a ways across the hall from him. He sighed. No getting out of it now.

 

“Lupin are you—are you listening to me? I don’t know what it’ll take but I swear if you’ll just—” Sirius started again and Remus was suddenly aware that Black was still talking to him. He really doesn’t know when to give up, does he?

 

“Black, can you just like, not? For like two minutes?” Remus leveled Sirius with an annoyed look, but Sirius just looked glad that Remus was talking to him. Suddenly, Remus was being grabbed by the arms and turned to face Alice.

“They’ve cut our funding! For the slam, the writing workshops, everything! Everything we had planned for the year, gone!” She was practically yelling and it took Remus a moment to process what she was talking about. Their funding? She couldn’t possibly be talking about—

 

“The writing program!” Alice screeched, and Remus’ face paled. Students around them had started to stare and Sirius still looked like he wanted to interject something, but Remus no longer cared.

 

“Who cut our funding? And why? We were doing so well!” Remus asked hurriedly.

 

“The district! Something about budget cuts and money being put to better use for the football team or something!” Alice gestured wildly at the word football and Sirius had the conscience to at least look a little guilty about the cut funding. “I can’t believe this, Remus. All of our hard work, gone! Poof! Like that!” She ran a hand through her short hair dejectedly. “The school won’t listen to me. They refuse to take it on with the higher ups; I’ve already emailed over a dozen people and the only responses I’ve gotten basically boil down to ‘Sorry, nothing can be done about it right now, check in a couple weeks!’ It’s shit, Remus! Absolute shit!”

 

Remus rubbed at his eyes in frustration. _This was just brilliant, wasn’t it?_ —he thought, annoyed. Sirius now looked extremely uncomfortable with the entire situation, wanting to back away while Remus was searching his head for possible solutions, thoughts racing back and forth.

 

“What about…” He started before furrowing his brows. “Can we fundraise ourselves? Wash cars, hold bake sales, the whole nine yards?” Remus asked hopefully, only for Alice to shake her head a moment later.

 

“I’ve done the math, Remus. If we try to fundraise that way, Remus, we’ll only be putting in more than we’re getting out. I’ve been trying to think of a way, but there’s nothing, Remus. We’re out of options. We just don’t have the backing to do it.” Alice looked as if she was going to begin crying again and Remus hurried to think of things that might make her feel better before Sirius spoke.

 

“I can help.” Sirius said, and both Remus and Alice looked up in his direction.

 

Alice looked at Sirius with something akin to hope, but Remus was still incredibly cross with the whole situation. Remus was, after all, one of the co-founders of the writing program that had just lost funding that was now being put towards Sirius’ ridiculous football team. Deep inside, he knew it wasn’t really Sirius’ fault about the funding, but Remus needed someone to blame and Sirius was the closest person aside from Alice.

 

“Are you making an attempt at a joke? ‘Cause it’s not funny or cute, Black, and I’ll have your head if you even—” Remus started, beginning to crowd Sirius’ personal space when Sirius put his hands up defensively and cut Remus off.

 

“Hey, hey—don’t throw a fit! I’m trying to help. Like I was saying before, if you’d bother to listen, I need someone to tutor me in Physics and you need help funding your program. We could work out an arrangement, that’s all.” Sirius let the offer hang in the air and Alice took a step towards Sirius with a calculating look on her face. It unnerved Sirius, but he stood his ground; Walburga Black ain’t raise no quitter. Rather, she didn’t raise him at all, but that was an inner conversation for another time—Sirius babbled on in his head to fill the empty space before Alice spoke.

 

“How would you do it? Fund us?” She asked hesitantly. Both Alice and Remus alike loved the writing program, it was practically their baby, and they’d truly hate to see it go.

 

“I’m the co-captain of the football team.” Sirius stated. At their unimpressed looks, he continued with a sigh. “I know how to fundraise better than anyone, trust me. I can donate too, my family has too much money anyways. Plus James Potter is my best friend and the football team's other co-captain and I know his guilt complex will make him extremely sorry for the funding cuts. He’ll help. We’ll donate and fundraise. Money’s not really an issue for us.”

 

The way Sirius said that money wasn’t an issue for him irked Remus to no end. It was as if Sirius was implying that it _was_  an issue for Alice and Remus, which it was, but Remus wasn’t going to give Black the satisfaction of knowing it. Remus had also heard of James Potter once, from Lily, an veteran officer of the writing program who’d had absolutely nothing pleasant to say about him, so he was still slightly unconvinced. He exchanged a questioning look with Alice for a few seconds before she turned back to Sirius.

 

“You just want to give us all that money? For Remus to tutor you? While I’d love to say yes, seems a little unfair on your end. Why can’t you just go to somebody else and avoid this mess entirely?” Alice asked. Remus had a small inner monologue with himself again— _While this might be the only way they get funded and it’d be nice if Alice could stop questioning it, she had a point. Why didn’t Sirius just go to someone else?_   Sirius exhaled in frustration and Remus couldn’t help but to feel the same.

 

“No offense, Lupin, but you were my last resort.” Sirius said bluntly and Remus considered how even when one says no offense, it’s still _so_ easy to still offend someone. “There’s only about five people in this bloody school who understand physics well enough to teach it to me; James is a shit tutor though, Lily’s too busy with StuCo and soccer, Thomas is a massive racist and Elena is obsessed with my brother, so that’s out. You’re the last person I could think of.” Sirius’ eyes dropped to the floor, suddenly very interested in a skid mark on the white tile. Remus narrowed his eyes.

 

“So why not just pay for an online tutor?” Remus asked, crossing his arms. There was still a little part in his brain that was telling him to turn Sirius down, but it was weakening as Sirius continued to speak.

 

“I’m more of a hands-on learner. I can’t stare at a screen for too long, it gives me headaches.” Sirius was avoiding Remus’ eyes now, looking everywhere beside his face. Remus squinted and decided to file that information away for later—Sirius Black, actual old man who hates technology.

 

As Remus looked from Alice’s hopeful face to Sirius’ sanguine expression, he sighed. He knew there was only one way this conversation was going to end.

 

“Okay.”

 

Alice and Sirius faced him with the same expression: incredulity.

 

“Okay?” They asked simultaneously. They glanced at each other briefly before looking back to Remus.

 

“Yes. Alice, we need the funding. If it takes tutoring Black for a few months, I’ll do it. You have to hold up on your end of the deal, Black. No backing out, alright?” Remus asked sincerely, but Sirius was already nodding vigorously as his face broke out into a wide grin. Remus just _knew_ was going to regret this.

 

Sirius stuck his hand out, grin wide like the Cheshire Cat.

 

“Deal?”

 

Remus took his hand.

 

“Deal.”

 

—————————

 

“I don’t understand, why are you using Fdcos of theta instead of change in energy?” Sirius scrunched his nose up in distaste.

 

“Look at the problem, what does it give you?” Remus implored calmly, pointing to a couple of words in the problem.

 

“It gives me—oh. It gives me force.” Sirius shoulders slumped. “I should’ve seen that.”

 

Remus frowned. They’d been working at the public library for two hours and although Sirius wasn’t the type to easily be defeated, he didn’t quite enjoy it when he misunderstood a concept entirely. Remus tried to help as much as he could through lecture but he wasn’t a patient person and physics is mostly concept paired with application, it’d be hard to move onto the application step if Sirius still struggled with basic concepts. However, Remus was sure of his own teaching ability, it’s what he wanted to do with his life after all; he knew Sirius would get it eventually, he was sure of it. He told him just as much constantly.

 

“It’s fine. You’ll understand in time. Now, explain it back to me as to why we’re using Fdcos of theta instead of change in energy or the force parallel equation?” Remus asked, giving Sirius a moment to think. After looking back and forth from his notes to the question a few times, Sirius spoke slowly.

 

“We use Fdcos of theta because... it gives us a force, which is F, right? And a change in position, which is displacement. Theta is just the angle between the displacement of the object and the force…?” Sirius kept looking from Remus to the problem, glancing at Remus every couple of seconds. It made Remus slightly self-conscious, but he knew that Sirius was only doing it because he needed constant affirmation.

 

“Right. Usually that equation is used when you have one force. The energy one is used when you see the word kinetic, thermal, spring or potential while the parallel one is used when you have parallel forces, those are pretty easy to spot. It’s all just a matter of continual applied practice.” Remus attempted to give Sirius an encouraging smile, but Sirius was quickly jotting down everything Remus said and missed it.

 

Remus had begun to learn, in the couple of hours they’d been working, that Sirius was the type of student who needed someone who would hover over his shoulder and tell him yes, you’re doing it right. Sirius wasn’t failing physics because he didn’t know anything, he was failing because he didn’t know how to apply what he knew. Or where, for that matter. They’d breezed through the kinematics and force units once Remus had understood this. Remus glanced at his notes, then at the clock on the wall.

 

“I think it’s time we wrapped it up here, yeah?” Remus asked, already pushing his papers into his bag. Sirius looked at the clock, then at his watch, before flipping his smartphone over to check again.

 

“Oh shit—hey, we went over our time, I’m sorry, I didn’t even notice.” Sirius began stuffing his papers into his bag as well. His phone began to ring and as Sirius saw the caller ID, he groaned. “Shit, that’s Reg, my brother. I’m ten minutes late picking him up from practice, can you just—hold on. Don’t leave.” He answered the phone, placing it in between his ear and his shoulder as he used his hands to continue to pack his stuff away.

 

“I know I’m late, Reg, I was studying.” He paused for a moment before sneering at nothing in particular. “I _was_ studying, you fucking mouthbreather. I’ll be there in ten, don’t die before I get there, idiot.”

 

Remus listened as Sirius let out a string of expletives into the phone as he bickered on with his brother. The librarian had started to give them ugly glances at Sirius’ loudness, but made no move to get up and tell them to stop so Remus let him continue.

 

“Yeah okay, and who else is gonna drive you? Mum? That’s what I thought.” Sirius spat into the phone. “Bye, Regulus. I’ll be there in ten, like I said.”

 

“Sorry, Lupin. My little brother’s a shit. But he’s my shit so I have to go pick him up. I’ll donate extra for the time you spent here, don’t worry.” Sirius began to walk out and it was all Remus could do to follow.

 

Remus almost began to protest about being paid extra, but they needed the money so he kept his mouth shut about it. Instead he asked about the tutoring process. No point in doing this exchange, if Sirius wasn’t gonna learn anything; Remus wasn’t the type of half-arse anything.

 

“Was today alright, the way I went through the concepts?” He questioned and Sirius brightened.

 

“Yeah! It made a lot of sense, the way you explained it. Though next time, can we go over energy and work more? I’m still iffy on how to deal with forces that take away or give energy to objects in a system.” Sirius suggested. Remus was a little surprised at how much Black had been paying attention throughout their sessions, as it was only the second one, but a little part of him was pleased that Sirius actually wanted to learn. This situation could’ve been a lot harder if Sirius was fickle.

 

Remus quickly made a note of the suggestion on his phone before nodding. “We can definitely go over that. Anything else?”

 

Sirius shook his head, long hair falling into his face before shuffling back into place as he looked up. They were outside the library now, on the sidewalk.

 

“Okay, well if you think of anything, text me. I’ll make a note of it. Or write it down somewhere, because every text you send me outside of our time will cost you five dollars.” Remus deadpanned and for a moment, Sirius looked confused. Then he laughed, loud and boisterous, before clapping a hand down on Remus’ shoulder. Remus paused before letting out a small chuckle, barely even audible really, and Sirius pointed his index finger at Remus accusingly.

 

“So you _can_ laugh!”

 

Remus shook Sirius’ hand off his shoulder. “Yeah, when someone’s actually funny.” He retorted. The ongoing banter he had started with Sirius was easy, fun almost, if Remus thought about it.

 

Sirius gasped in mock offense. “So cruel, you wound me, Lupin!” He exclaimed, laying a hand across his forehead dramatically.

 

“Go pick your brother up.” Remus shoved Sirius softly in the direction of Sirius’ car. Sirius’ sour look from earlier when he was on the phone returned and briefly, Remus thought of how he liked it better when Sirius was smiling. He shook the thought away though and picked at his cuticles instead.

 

“Ugh, that brat. Alright.” Sirius straightened and began to walk to his car. “See you, Lupin!” He waved as he walked backwards before turning around and jogging to his car.

 

Remus sighed as he watched him go.

  
“See you, Black.”


	2. An Insufferable Toerag

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Back again! I love James and Sirius' friendship so much, I couldn't help myself for diving into that. Thanks for reading, please enjoy and remember to comment/give kudos if you liked it!

“You got _Lupin_ to tutor you? As in _Remus_ Lupin?”

 

Sirius groaned.

 

“For the third time, James, _yes_ , Lupin’s tutoring me.” Sirius dropped his head over the front of James’ bed and watched James as he twirled slowly in the computer chair at his desk. “Are we done talking about it?”

 

James scoffed obnoxiously. “Are we done talking about it? Are we done, he asks me!” He exclaimed to himself before letting his chair come to a stop so he could face Sirius. “You’ve liked Lupin since hm let me think..." He hummed in fake contemplation."uh—forever! How could you not tell me that’s where you’ve been going every tuesday and thursday night! I thought that we’d lost like bro status or something and you had another bro you were seeing! But Lupin? Remus Lupin? Honestly Sirius, if I wasn’t bro-mad at you, I’d be high-fiving you right now.” James shook his head.

 

“You are disgusting and banned from using the word ‘bro’ for the rest of the day.” Sirius grimaced as he pushed his face back into the edge of the mattress, hoping that maybe it would take pity on him and swallow him whole so he wouldn’t have to have this conversation. “It’s not that big of a deal. I genuinely need help in my physics class. Lupin just happens to need funding for his writing thingy. We’re just helping each other out. Plus he’s just good at explaining stuff and I get it now.”

 

James shot him doubtful look.  

 

“I’m serious! I do get stuff. Some stuff.”  Sirius said hastily at James’ skepticism. He really was understanding things better now, so what if it was Remus who was explaining it to him? Just because Remus had those chocolate brown eyes and his hands were really soft whenever they brushed Sirius’, it didn’t mean anything! “Don’t make the Sirius joke, or I’ll choke you.” He added at James’ sly grin. “Remus and I are _working_ on it, okay?”

 

James smirked.

 

“So it’s _Remus_ now? You’re on a first name basis now, huh?” James snickered, wiggling his eyebrows ridiculously.

 

“Why is it that you only hear what you want to whenever I speak? If I had known you were gonna be a wanker about it, I never would’ve told you.” Sirius grumbled, turning his head to lay on it’s side, one cheek squished into the bed padding.

 

“I’m just taking the piss, mate. Look, the way I see it, I was a shit tutor. You know it, I know it, Lily knows it. The only other students apart from Lily, Remus and I who have the time and brains to tutor you are a bunch of, let’s be honest, overachieving gits. So I’m glad you found someone, even if it is your childhood crush of nine years, who has evaded every single one of your attempts to get near him, and genuinely someone we all thought hated you up until now.”

 

“Thanks Jamie.” Sirius deadpanned. “You really know how to make me feel superb in my darkest of times.” There was slight truth to James’ statement though; Sirius did genuinely think that Remus hated him, after all, the only interaction they’d had was when they’d lived next to each other briefly through elementary school and when Sirius had asked Remus for a scratch sheet of paper in chemistry sophomore year. Not that Sirius would ever admit he remembered small interactions like that.

 

“If this is your darkest of times, I’m sorry bro but this is the highest your love life has ever been.” James stood to jump on the bed next to Sirius. Sirius considered scooting his body over from the middle to make room, but James was teasing him and Sirius was a petty child, so he stayed put. “I mean, aside from that time last year when everyone thought we were dating because you carried my drunk ass piggy-back style out of a party last year. That was a real peak in your love life that you should still be thanking me for.” He grinned as Sirius punched him in the arm.

 

“Thank you for what, puking on my shoes? And again in my car?” Sirius taunted and it was James’ turn to sock Sirius in the arm. “Yeah, real classy, James. And why do you act like that rumor went away? I still get the eyes of doom from Evans every time you stand next to me.” It didn’t help that James fussed over Sirius like he was his mum and that Sirius regularly blew kisses to James from across the field while they played football, but whatever, Sirius didn’t like the idea of heteronormative friendships anyways.

 

“Evans gives you the eyes of doom? Are you fucking me around?” James questioned, the topic of Remus momentarily forgotten and Sirius was thankful. Sirius loved James, make no mistake, and usually had no problem telling him every dirty detail of his shenanigans, but sometimes James could get to be a bit...  much. Sirius supposed that was why Lily had rejected him so strongly the first time he had come onto her. That, or she just genuinely disliked him.

 

“Don’t go nutters on me now. Just because she’s stopped calling you a—what was it now James?” He smirked as James stuffed his face into the mattress. He mumbled something unintelligible into the sheets and Sirius lowered his head next to James’. “What was that? Didn’t quite catch it.”

 

James sighed loudly before finally picking his head up to look at Sirius.

 

“An insufferable toerag.” He mumbled lamely, plopping his read right back down into the bed once he was finished. A part of Sirius pitied him, but the other part remembered how James had been a shit about Lupin being Sirius’ tutor and decided to tease on.

 

“Right, that was it! So just because she’s stopped calling you an insufferable toerag every time your name was so much as mentioned, doesn’t mean she wants to head out to prom with you just yet, James. Besides, you’ll be busy enough fundraising with me for the writing program.”

 

“Why did you drag me into that again?” James asked, barely intelligible through the covers.

 

“For one, you love fundraising. You are literally the most competitive person I have ever met and that’s including myself.” Sirius stated very matter-of-factly and James shrugged, he had to admit it was true. James had once wanted to be a girl scout when he was eight because he knew he’d smoke all those little girls at selling stuff, but his mum didn’t like the idea of James becoming part of a capitalist economy at such a young age so that was thrown out after two weeks. “Two, ‘cause I love you with all of my heart and I just happened to know that Evans is one of the leading officers in said writing program and I figured you might be able to woo her with the goodness of your own heart.”

 

James sat up quickly. “You’re shitting me.” He said, but a grin was already creeping onto his face. Sirius shook his head and James flopped on top of him.

 

“You’re the best mate ever, have I ever told you that?” James said as he squished his face into Sirius’ back. Sirius grunted, having James around was like having a big dog who thought he was still a puppy. The type that are way too big to sit in your lap and lay in your bed, but try anyways. That kind of big dog.

 

“Get off me, before I go and tell Evans you’re a big pouf.” Sirius mumbled and James laughed obnoxiously.

 

“You’ll die of suffocation first.” James said lightly and Sirius rolled over so that his hair was in James’ face, Sirius’ back to James’ chest. James made gagging noises and he opened his mouth to speak and was met with a mouthful of Sirius’ hair. “Get off me, you idiot!” Sirius was too busy laughing to notice James pushing him off until Sirius slipped off the side of the bed.

 

“You're a shit, James!” Sirius cried and James was laughing so loud it could be heard all the way through his house.

 

However, as Sirius looked at the time, his own laughter slowed into a quieter resolve. 

 

“I gotta go get Regulus and head home.” Sirius said softly, standing from his previous spot on the floor. James' laughter had slowed to a stop as well and Sirius was aware that James had begun staring at him, but he didn’t bother with looking him in the face, he knew what he’d see. Concern. Uneasiness. Apprehension. The topic of Sirius’ family was a delicate one, particularly because James knew all that he did.

 

“You gonna be alright, mate?” James asked in the same voice you talk to a cornered animal with and Sirius hated it. Sirius hated it more than anything else, especially when James was the one using it. But Sirius took a couple seconds to remind himself that James was just being James, the fretting mother that he was, and sighed.

 

“I’ll be fine.” Sirius said, pushing a smile back onto his face. He considered adding on that there was no reason to worry, but James knew him better than that, he’d see right through it. Sirius was still deciding on whether or not that was a good thing.

 

“You’re always welcome here. I mean it. You could always just drop Regulus off and come here.” James gave the same speech every time Sirius left to go home, as if Sirius didn’t wish so badly that he could do just what James said.

 

“I got Regulus. Can’t leave ‘im there, they’ll bloody ruin him. Y’know that.” Sirius looked at James finally, and despised the fact that he was exactly right about what he thought he’d see in James’ face.

 

“I know. I just—” James paused, thinking for a moment, brow furrowing. “You shouldn’t have to stay there. With those people. The option’s always open, so you know. Always.” The sincerity of James’ words often shocked Sirius; as much as he loved James, he just couldn't imagine bearing his heart like that for the world to see every day and not caring what people did with it. He supposes that's why they got on so well.

 

“I know James. Thanks. C’mon, I really do have to go get Regulus. He’s a nitpicky git and he’ll give me shit the entire ride home if I’m late.” James frowned as Sirius changed the subject, but he dropped it for now. There’d be a time and place for having a serious— _haha_ —heart to heart with Sirius.

  
For now, James watched him go. 

 

He would always come back. 

**Author's Note:**

> there will be more chapters, pls comment/give kudos if u liked it!


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